Design Credits

Friday, 16 September 2016

Following on from my post yesterday, there's some
interesting research going on with people like me called the 'sandwich
generation'. The ‘Sandwich Generation’ - originally coined by social worker
Dorothy Miller in 1981 - describes those who are “sandwiched” between looking
after young children and aging parents, as their primary caregiver. This is a
growing group as families are having children later and seniors are living
longer. This is certainly true for me and apparently lots of other people in
this 40-60 age group.

ABDO commissioned media agency, the Relations Group, to
interview 2,000 members of the ‘Sandwich Generation’, asking them about how
they look after their own health, that of their parents and their children. The
research found that looking after their eyes was a key area that was sacrificed
due to lack of time, with 7 per cent having not been to the optician for a
staggering nine years or more.

As many as 1 in 6 (16 per cent) say they don’t have enough
time to spend on their own health, while a quarter (24 per cent) are most
likely to go to the optician for their child and 2 per cent for their parents,
over themselves.

This again is very true for me. We’ve recently been doing
some resilience training at work and the thing that stood out the most for me
from the training was that the person I look after the least is me. I’m sure
that the statistics above ring true not just for Parents but certainly for us
in the sandwich generation. I’m very aware that I need to work on this

Following on from my post yesterday, there's some
interesting research going on with people like me called the 'sandwich
generation'. The ‘Sandwich Generation’ - originally coined by social worker
Dorothy Miller in 1981 - describes those who are “sandwiched” between looking
after young children and aging parents, as their primary caregiver. This is a
growing group as families are having children later and seniors are living
longer. This is certainly true for me and apparently lots of other people in
this 40-60 age group.

ABDO commissioned media agency, the Relations Group, to
interview 2,000 members of the ‘Sandwich Generation’, asking them about how
they look after their own health, that of their parents and their children. The
research found that looking after their eyes was a key area that was sacrificed
due to lack of time, with 7 per cent having not been to the optician for a
staggering nine years or more.

As many as 1 in 6 (16 per cent) say they don’t have enough
time to spend on their own health, while a quarter (24 per cent) are most
likely to go to the optician for their child and 2 per cent for their parents,
over themselves.

This again is very true for me. We’ve recently been doing
some resilience training at work and the thing that stood out the most for me
from the training was that the person I look after the least is me. I’m sure
that the statistics above ring true not just for Parents but certainly for us
in the sandwich generation. I’m very aware that I need to work on this